When Angie Nixon got Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on the phone recently, the Florida Democrat made the ask every candidate puts to their party’s leader: Help me fund this race.

His answer, by her account, was noncommittal.

“When I did speak with Senator Schumer on the phone, it was basically a ‘we will see,’” Nixon said in the latest episode of “Clock It with Symone & Eugene.” “He’s gonna look into it. That’s what was said, that he’s gonna look into it.” 

Nixon, a state representative from Jacksonville, won Florida’s Democratic Senate nomination last month in an upset. Her account offers a rare look at how national Democrats are handling a nominee who started as an insurgent, running against the same party establishment that now controls the purse strings.

Nixon and Schumer have yet to have an official meeting in person, though they saw each other last week at an event and spoke. “We are working on a sit-down,” Nixon told MS NOW. “I have talked to some of his staff.” 

Asked whether the national party was doing enough to help her win, she was measured but direct: “They could do a lot more.” 

Nixon has two explanations on why she believes party leaders are holding back. The first is ideological. 

“I am a progressive Democrat, and I am very vocal about putting working-class families first. I am very vocal about progressive values,” she said. “So I think that may be the main issue.” 

The second is her race and gender. “Folks are a little gun-shy because, unfortunately, Vice President [Kamala] Harris lost as a Black woman, and so people are being very hesitant in terms of funding Black women, especially in the South.” 

A DSCC spokesperson pushed back on Nixon’s criticisms. “We are excited about opportunities to expand the map further and monitor all races closely, including Florida, where Angie Nixon is running an energetic campaign,” they said.

The DSCC has opened a joint fundraising committee with Nixon’s campaign, and she attended a fundraiser for it just last week. But it’s unclear how much money the DSCC has actually sent to Florida.

A senior Democratic aide with knowledge of the conversations told MS NOW that polling will, of course, help drive spending. Disputing the idea that party leadership is withholding help because Nixon is a progressive, the aide — who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations — pointed to recent investments in Michigan, where progressive Abdul El-Sayed is the Senate nominee.

The aide also said Democrats have been caught somewhat off-guard as their chances of retaking the Senate have improved sharply in recent months. A map that once had the party playing defense and hoping for the best now requires it to go on offense at a severe financial disadvantage.

That forces hard choices, and Florida may be the clearest example. The simplest explanation for the party’s reluctance there may also be the least personal: The state is a reach for Democrats and one of the most expensive in the country to compete in, and every dollar spent there is a dollar that can’t go to races that look easier to win.

That calculation has been years in the making. National Democrats have paid less and less attention to Florida as it has shifted from perennial battleground to reliably Republican, and Democratic strategists in the state have long criticized the national party for failing to invest there.

Therein lies the tension. 

National Democrats have said for years that they need to compete in every state and every district, especially after losing ground in places like Florida. Nixon argues her state’s reputation as a Republican stronghold is itself a product of her party’s neglect. Florida, she said, isn’t a “red state; it is an under-invested state.”

Still, the numbers national strategists have to weigh are daunting. Republicans hold an advantage of more than 1.5 million registered voters over Democrats in Florida, according to the state’s Division of Elections. No Democrat has won a Senate race there since Bill Nelson in 2012.

Recent polling, though, has been closer than many expected, generally showing a single-point race with Moody ahead, even as the national environment grows more favorable to Democrats by the day. MS NOW rates the race “Likely Republican,” but has it on its list of races to watch.

In late July, the DSCC announced a $40 million investment across 10 states, including Florida. Beyond that, the committee’s public posture toward the race has been cautious. After Nixon won the primary, Schumer and DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand issued a joint statement praising her background as a union organizer and criticizing Moody’s votes on health care. The statement didn’t announce any spending.

Even Florida Democrats are tempering expectations. State party chair Nikki Fried has said the party can’t necessarily count on a major DSCC investment this cycle.

The financial gap, meanwhile, is wide. Moody raised $11.3 million through the end of July, and had $8.4 million on hand after the primary. Nixon had raised less than $1 million over the same period.

Some help has trickled in. A DSCC aide, granted anonymity to discuss interactions with the Nixon campaign, told MS NOW that both Gillibrand and Schumer have invested the maximum of $5,000 from their own leadership PACs to Nixon, and added that Gillibrand and Nixon have spoken on the phone. Nixon herself said that Gillibrand was “pushing the senators to help support me financially.” But that kind of support won’t go far toward closing the gap.

Nixon said she’s undeterred.

“They may not be treating it as a competitive race, but I have to continue to prove that it is, and so I am not going to allow that to stop me,” she said. “I know what it is. I know that initially no one is going to really invest in this state, and so I was still able to win [the primary], and so I’m going to work my butt off. That’s all I know.”

For many Democrats, especially Black women, the party’s reluctance sends a message of its own. Nixon would be the first Black senator in Florida’s history, and she is one of only three Black women who are Democratic Senate nominees this year.

“If people claim to care about Black people, particularly Black women, we are the most consistent members of the Democratic Party that always show up. The state of Florida, we have the second-largest Black population in this country and so they need to put some respect on our names. What that looks like is go ahead and invest in this state.”

The post ‘Gun-shy’ after 2024: Angie Nixon says Democratic leaders are wary of backing Black women candidates appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.